Spice and Warforged/Session 3
Evariste Galois, who had taken the false name of Leonhard Euler, was to stand trial for the aggravated assault of Laszlo Mandoki, a peacekeeper who had been almost pistol-whipped by the late Dayra Zinfiel at Futaba Harbor. C3 came to Futaba to stand as a witness for the defendant. The prosecution made the case that Euler was not who he said he was, but in fact was Galois -- and brought in one Viktor Bunyakovsky, a former student of the late Dr. Cauchy who was out for revenge against Galois, and had recruited the Underborough brothers to aid him -- to present evidence of this. If, as he prosecution claimed, Euler was Galois, then his main defense argument, that he was being controlled by Dayra's vampiric magicks, would fail: it would not be out of character for Galois to assault an officer of the peace. But before the prosecutor could make his case, he was assailed by a mysterious ghost, hurting his focus. The defense now took to the floor, and brought forth C3 to reaffirm that Dayra was insane and had been manipulating Euler, as well as the psychiatrist Anissa Amistacia, who herself was under investigation for negligence (in releasing Dayra from the hospital before confirming that she was healthy) and because she had been practicing with a fraudulent medical license, obtained from the corrupt Durette University. She confessed that, indeed, Dayra had been admitted for insanity -- but just as she was about to justify why she had released her early, she was attacked by the same ghost, and ran screaming from the podium. During closing statements, the prosecutor was again attacked by the specter, prompting the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that Euler (or Galois) was clearly being harassed by the undead, just as he claimed, and thus was very likely to be found innocent; the early dismissal, rather than a standard jury proceeding, was done in part to protect the jury's safety. After the trial, the party was again accosted by Viktor, who swore to continue his quest of revenge at a later date. They then decided to aid Amistacia in her own trial. Her defense attorney, Stein Sarkachi, clearly viewed the party as unhelpful, but after more chaos brought about by the ghost delayed his own closing statements for another day, Sarkachi agreed to allow them to depart for Fujiwara to gather evidence against Durette University: if they could find incriminating proof that Durette was deliberately misleading students about the nature of their medical program, Amistacia could plead guilty and agree to testify against Durette in exchange for only six months in prison, as opposed to the 10-year sentence medical malpractice under false pretenses would usually give. On the way to Fujiwara, the party, now joined by Dayra's ghost, saw several billboards of opposing purposes: to support, or oppose, the building of a temple to Lucia -- most of the people were opposed to allowing Lucians to publicly worship in their hometown, but some wanted to allow them for the sake of religious freedom. But Amistacia's sentencing was tomorrow, and so any antics involving the local branch of the Lucian cult would have to wait... ---- Meanwhile, Light began the process of exploring Fort Bulette. Wilson and a KEL Cycle were destroyed in the process, after Light was accosted by several undead who were still enslaved by the late Lt. Lavaluka Tutti, and who mistook him for enemy soldiers. He also met a talking vampire statue who told him, "Friend, give unto me who is athirst waters of the fountain of life." By nightfall, Light had cleared 4% of Fort Bulette and seen 15% of it. But the commotion awoke more undead, and worse monsters still, and future trips into Fort Bulette will be far more difficult...